I belong to no organized political party. I am a Democrat--Will Rogers

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Why does Mitt Romney want to be President?

I'm likely to watch Mitt Romney's speech tomorrow, antacid at hand. (What the hell, the Red Sox are losing on the West Coast this week.)

What I'll be hoping for is some insight into why the man wants to be President. I don't think he'll deal with that, even inferentially, but it's something I've been wondering about.

I mean, many of us have daydreams about what we'd do if we inhabited the Oval Office (that physical space is mainly ceremonial, but you know what I mean). We might even think about why we'd like to be the President. But hardly any of us have the ambition, ego, drive, energy and guts to go out and run for the office. Much less to make it to through the nominating process of even such a diminished party as today's Republicans.

Yet I wonder why it is that Mitt Romney wants the job.

I'm assuming that he is mature enough to the know that it isn't winning, but serving as President that's important. (Not sure if that was true of George W.)

It's not as Romney hasn't told us what he'll do. He has. Endlessly. And often in contradiction to what he said before.

But are any of these ideas and policies really enough to motivate someone for the most difficult job on Earth? (I'm not sure that it really is more difficult than, say, being a sandhog, or painting the top of the towers on the Golden Gate bridge, or being a fighter pilot in combat, or even serving as a Supreme Court justice, but it's a really big job.) Is freeing business from the yoke of government regulation, or reducing taxes on the wealthy really enough to inspire a person to go through the tortuous work of running for President? Is turning Medicare over to the insurance companies and Medicaid to the tender mercies of the state so thrilling? Is getting government out of our hair but not out of our bedrooms or bodies enough? Maybe, but I don't see it.

If you have any thoughts on why Mitt Romney wants to be president, pass them along. It's our policy to publish all comments that are not unintelligible, spam, scurrilous or sufficiently defamatory to make us liable in a court of law.